Thursday, May 14, 2009

Ripped Off and Plagiarized in the Indian Press!!

From CD yesterday: The Baltic Dry Index (BDI) closed above 2300 for the first time since October 10, and reached a 7-month high today of 2332. Over the last ten days, the BDI has increased by 560 points (+32%), and over the last 25 days the index has increased by 869 points (+59%). From MandarNimkar of the Economic Times of India today: The Baltic Dry Index (BDI) closed above 2300 for the first time since October 10, and reached a 7-month high on Wednesday of 2332. Over the last ten days, the BDI has increased by 560 points (32%), and over the last 25 days the index has increased by 869 points (59%). Can you do that? Shouldn't you at least change it a little bit? I think the "copy and paste" feature for some writers (and students) is like "journalistic or academic crack cocaine" - easy, cheap, and instant results, i.e. irresistible and completely addicting.

Update: As misterjosh comments "India is outsourcing its reporting to low cost American college professor bloggers. I think we've come full circle."

Do people from India culturally respect private property rights? I know from tutoring writing that Asians tend to think communally and consider written words "free" like air or water for anyone’s use. Accordingly, they can't easily grasp the concept of plagiarism or that it is wrong. They will cite sources—if pushed and they are graded down if they don’t—but they don’t really understand why they should.

Possibly we are trying to force our American moral and ethical standards on others when we complain about plagiarism and copyright violations. If so, think globally and let it go. There are more of them than us, and it is a flat world nowadays with holes for some of us who can’t compete using other people’s rules.

What law is that? Copyright laws and such that we made in the U.S.? We are cutting underdeveloped countries slack on everything from livable wages, human rights' abuse, and pollution, so why should intellectual property be an exception? Are you saying that 25-cent-per-hour slave labor should be treated to a different standard than words on a page? If we want our copyright laws to apply internationally, then, apply our minimum wage and environmental laws internationally, too.

Walt - your twisted contorted reasoning doesn't work here...the law is the law and these folks are breaking the law. You are making an apples and oranges (politically motivated) argument. Publishing has always been a global business. You can't take a book, for example, that is published in America and clearly has copyrights within it, hop on a plane with the book and copy it overseas without breaking the law.

Nolo Press has many excellent legal self-help books - see those on publishing.

Walt, regarding your comparison of minimum wage laws and copyright laws, you would have a point if minimum wage laws were a legitimate protection of rights.

However, they are not. No worker has a real, legitimate right to any particular wage-level. Just because they have that legal right under U.S. law does not mean this is right. [An analogy: just because the U.S. bans some substance, does not mean it is right to do so and that all other government's must do so.]

Therefore, you cannot simply take one rule (like minimum wage) and use it as an example. Instead, you have to ask whether each rule/law is objectively valid. When you look at this way, copyright law protects individual rights while minimum wage laws (and various environmental laws) violate such individual rights. Therefore, it is right to protest one but not the other.

Of course, if one lives in a U.S. jurisdiction, one will follow U.S. law, even while one campaigns for changes. However, there is no reason to ask foreign countries to adopt minimum-wage laws and thus violate people's rights, just because the U.S. does so.

Ok, Eric, so the situation may be different. But is there really a difference between twisted and contorted :)

Which specific law is being broken when someone in India uses words from a blog in the U.S. and publishes them electronically around the world on the Internet? Where would the trial take place? Internet pornography has a problem with this, too.

As we transition to a global economy, I think we have to be prepared to change our cultural awareness--at least the concept-- to the majority (India and China 2.5 billion population vs, U.S. 330 million). Other countries simply do not have the same notion of property rights that we do. That does not make them right and us wrong—just different.

Interesting exchange between Eric Tyson and Walt G. I think the point of difference is that copyright and trademark protection are negociated in trade agreements.The fact that counterfeiting and copying of protected products occurs and is ignored is a matter of will. The party who suffers the loss is at the mercy of their government for enforcement in most cases. This is why over 80% of U.S. created software is not paid for in Asia. Your government is inept and now weak so don't expect much help.

"For the first time since October 10, the BDI has closed above 2300 and reached 2332, which is a 7-month high. In the last 25 days, the BDI has increased by 869 points (59%+), and during last 10 days it has increased by 560 points (32%+)."

Here, I've changed the original para a little bit. Now it is no longer plagiarized. Big deal!